Blog also known as SathyaSaiMemories ~ stories of love in action and the benefits of giving

Love and Friendship

Bohm was born in the 1920s in America. He showed immense early promise in maths and physics when a child and was fascinated by science and science fiction. He was part of the Manhattan Project, lead by Oppenheimer, which saw America drop the first nuclear bomb, believing at the time that it might be the means to bring an end to world conflicts. He since recognised that he was wrong. A lifelong Marxist who was interested in ideas which might bring us to coexist in a more humane and harmonious way, he fell foul of the MacCarthy trials of the 50s and was forced to leave the country, never to return (Oppenheimer himself is thought to have been instrumental in informing upon him). As his career as a scientist progressed, he became more and more fascinated by the findings of Quantum Science, seeing in it a radical challenge to the prevailing Mechanistic view of the Universe that had begun with Newton. For Bohm, that model for understanding the Cosmos and our place in it was gone. Relativity and Quantum Theory had demonstrated that the true nature of Reality was fundamentally different from that with which we had been operating with since Newton and Descartes. Not only did he see this as a major revolution in Science, but he hoped that it would lead to a similar revolution in human Consciousness and how we lived together. For Bohm, how we saw the Universe was simultaneous with how we saw each other.

DAVID BOHM: LIGHT AND MYSTICISM

“WEBER: Speaking of mysticism, there is an important idea that I would like to discuss and understand and that is the idea of light. That is especially important to me because you are a physicist. Light has been used as THE privileged metaphor in the language of mysticism and experimental religions, going back to the Greeks and the east. In all these, light is the symbol for our union with the divine. They talk about light without shadow, an all-suffusing light, and it comes up as the central metaphor in near-death experiences. Do you have any hypothesis as to why light has been singled out as the privileged metaphor?

BOHM: If you want to relate it to modern physics (light and more generally anything moving at the speed of light, which is called the null-velocity, meaning null distance), the connection might be as follows. As an object approaches the speed of light, according to relativity, its internal space and time change so that the clocks slow down relative to other speeds, and the distance is shortened. You would find that the two ends of the light ray would have no time between them and no distance, so they would represent immediate contact (this was pointed out by G N Lewis, a physical chemist, in the 1920s). You could say that from this point of view of present field theory, the fundamental fields are those of very high energy in which mass can be neglected, which would essentially be moving at the speed of light. Mass is a phenomenon of connecting light rays which go back and forth, sort of freezing them into a pattern. So matter, as it were, is condensed or frozen light. Light is not merely electromagnetic waves but in a sense other kinds of waves that go at that speed. Therefore all matter is a condensation of light into patterns moving back and forth at average speeds which are less than the speed of light. Even Einstein had some hint of that idea. You could say that when we come to light we are coming to the fundamental activity in which existence has its ground, or at least coming close to it.”

Earlier Weber asks Bohm:

“WEBER: What you have been saying sounds like mysticism – that we are grounded in something infinite. How does it differ from what the great mystics have said?

“Bohm replies:

“BOHM: I don’t know that there’s necessarily any difference.”

And yet elsewhere there is this exchange:

“WEBER: Is the super-implicate order a euphemism for God?

BOHM: I don’t know what the meaning of the question is since the super-implicate order is in turn part of a still greater implicate order. It’s not a euphemism for God because its limited.

WEBER: Then let’s shift the question to the ultimate super super-implicate order.

BOHM: But we can’t grasp that in thought. We’re not saying that any of this is another word for God. I would put it another way: people had insight in the past about a form of intelligence that had organised the universe and they personalised it and called it God. A similar insight can prevail again today without personalising it and without calling it a personal God.”

– from THE ESSENTIAL DAVID BOHM: CHAPTER 4: THE SUPER-IMPLICATE ORDER. ISBN: 0415261740 DAVID BOHM: LIGHT AND MYSTICISM

I am very sure that darkness and the light are equally sacred but that does not mean we benefit by becoming complacent about the darkness we find ourselves in. We may meet in ourselves the deepest darkness a soul can bare but there’s always a way out of the darkest pit. For ultimately, if we are to cleanse the mirror of perception and purify ourselves, then we must bring light into the darkness. That’s always been the path of consciousness and the movement of illumination from the beginning of time. This coexistence of darkness and light indeed creates a merry dance in which the clarity of light is invited to lead and lead it must, but it does not create a hierarchy.

from the wild-garden

When we meet a loved one, or see a beautiful flower, or hear beautiful music, we are instantly filled with light.We can feel ourselves literately lighting up. Simply by being in a positive state of mind, our souls becomes receptive to the light.

We are capable of sending light to another by directing our thoughts, which are aligned with our feelings, toward someone, and when one does, instantaneously that light vibration and its energy is with that person. The quality and worth of light that is received is exactly that which we send, although the receiver may not be aware of it on a conscious level.

“We not only have light within us, but also emit light. The light we use for communication within and also emit is called ‘biophotons’. Experiments have shown that creatures of the same species emit and absorb light from each other in the form of these biophotons. These biophotons, being subatomic particles, may carry information. They also may carry energy, the vital force in Huna that is used by all three parts of the self. So when the religions speak of someone being filled with light or being the light, there is a physical basis for that reference. It is also another indication of communication that goes on all around us, that we are in fact a part of, but are unaware of, except when it is revealed by scientific methods.

Light in the tiniest amounts working on the tiniest particles that are nothing more than a possibility are the building blocks of our world and our bodies. Light, as subatomic particles that form waves, moves information from one dimension to the next, from one part of the family within to the next and it is happening all around us and through us. Light is our energy source and our information. When we consume food we digest the food and expel the carbon dioxide, but absorb the biophotons. The biophotons are absorbed by each cell nourishing the body. Our bodies are made of light and by consuming light we replenish our bodies. In every respect, like the Essenes, we are children of the light”

SENDING LIGHT, THE PRIMORDIAL MOTHER II (1985) Left Pillar

Through a circular portal of clouds, we behold a vision of the Primordial Mother II (1985), her arms outstretched in an eternal gesture of offering. Her eyes are closed, her face serene. From above, a golden light descends and enters her, bathing her form with its radiance. Her robe and veils are green, the colour of abundance. Her bare feet and the folds of her robe spread out over the earth, infusing it with her life-creating powers. And in her womb, a spiraling cluster of stars bursts into life.

I am sure most of you have noticed, that I share a goodly amount of posts on LIGHT. I love the topic because Light is what we are. From the tiniest atom in our bodies to the vastness of the universe, all is light. My quotes and posts on light may not speak to every one, but I do believe in them and the power of positive posting, to keep the light out there, shining even in the deepest and darkest places of the Globe. Here’s a post about light, how we light up when we meet someone we love. I’d posted this same piece some years ago, then forgot all about it. I’ve decided to post it today, with a few other nice pieces about light, love and positive thoughts. Eve

When we meet a loved one, or see a beautiful flower, or hear beautiful music, we are instantly filled with light.We can feel ourselves literately lighting up. Simply by being in a positive state of mind, our souls becomes receptive to the light.

We are capable of sending light to another by directing our thoughts, which are aligned with our feelings, toward someone, and when one does, instantaneously that light vibration and its energy is with that person. The quality and worth of light that is received is exactly that which we send, although the receiver may not be aware of it on a conscious level.

“We not only have light within us, but also emit light. The light we use for communication within and also emit is called ‘biophotons’. Experiments have shown that creatures of the same species emit and absorb light from each other in the form of these biophotons. These biophotons, being subatomic particles, may carry information. They also may carry energy, the vital force in Huna that is used by all three parts of the self. So when the religions speak of someone being filled with light or being the light, there is a physical basis for that reference. It is also another indication of communication that goes on all around us, that we are in fact a part of, but are unaware of, except when it is revealed by scientific methods.

Light in the tiniest amounts working on the tiniest particles that are nothing more than a possibility are the building blocks of our world and our bodies. Light, as subatomic particles that form waves, moves information from one dimension to the next, from one part of the family within to the next and it is happening all around us and through us. Light is our energy source and our information. When we consume food we digest the food and expel the carbon dioxide, but absorb the biophotons. The biophotons are absorbed by each cell nourishing the body. Our bodies are made of light and by consuming light we replenish our bodies. In every respect, like the Essenes, we are children of the light”

-Courtesy Wil Langford. “Our loved Ones – Ourselves.”

Jof-herm-tris

Lit up by the light of your face, there is no soul that is not Longing for the dust of your place, there is no eye that is not. Those who have seen your face, are all-knowing and wise Secrets of your beauty and grace, there is no head where is not.

No wonder if my telling tears, red and bloody, rise from my eyes
Ashamed and repentant of one’s own case, there is no one who is not.

Till His breeze settles His dust upon my lap as my prize
All things, everyone I chase, there is none passing that is not.

Till the fragrance of your hair to every inhaler flies
Morning breeze confer, embrace, there is no dawn that is not.

Puzzling fate, in my fate, my agony and pain lies
Being showered by your grace, there is no one who is not.

– Hafiz

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There is an old saying that goes, don’t make friends with a shadow because a shadow does not smile. So true, eh ? Nor does a shadow talk. A shadow is just a reflection of something else. Old relationships are like that. Yet, sometimes we try to hold on to them, even when they no longer serve a purpose. One of my biggest faults is that I hang on to shadows, even though I know it is pointless. I don’t know why I do this. My head knows the truth, so why doesn’t my heart follow? I guess the problem with me, I am sentimental. It’s a huge fault I need to overcome.

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With the demise of SaiBaba some three years ago, I’d lost a large part of ‘me’ and my way of life. I’d enjoyed yearly visits to his Ashram for some twenty years, and although he never gave me much attention, I still enjoyed the vibrations and atmosphere of being in his energy field. When he died, I was devastated. What to do? I tried to keep him alive through communicating with others around him. Big mistake on my part. They did not offer much comfort or friendship, most were busy making new lives for themselves. After a year or so, I too, wanted to move on, to forget the past, to begin a new life somewhere else. But moving house was not an option with a downturn in the market. Caught in that situation, I was dancing with shadows.

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I still return to India during the winter to visit SaiBaba’s ashram. There is an undeniable presence of him there. There, in the subdued atmosphere of a bygone time, that decaying vista, that once was his lively ashram, becomes tender. There’s plenty of time for quiet reflection on all that was and now isn’t. The sun shines brightly over the ashram as always, the flower garden, even bigger now, is abundant with tropical plants and trees. I sit by the shaded lily pond, and ponder on the mental pain. There’s still a presence of him everywhere, but for me the grieving is not over. Everywhere there are pointers of times gone by, that throw shadows I would rather not see. I tell myself, “Oh get over it.” I don’t though. I retrace my footsteps to all my old haunts.

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I am going back this winter to India to take more photos, but this time I’ll take a whole new programme for building brand new habits. Thanks to Tiny Buddha, here are some pointers toward a new future. Perhaps they can help you too, if you are also dancing with shadows. – Don’t dance with shadows. No, No No!

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But the truth is, there are no simple step-by-step instructions for knowing when it’s time to move on. Surely there are signs. But the most important is that small knowing voice within that says something isn’t right, and it can’t be fixed. It may never be easy to admit this. Endings always lead to uncertainty, and that can be terrifying. But they also beget new beginnings, and new opportunities for relationships that don’t leave us feeling depleted and defeated. How do we know when it’s time to move on? It’s when we find the courage to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that staying will do more harm than good. We’re the only ones who can admit this to ourselves. And we’re the only ones who can change our lives for the better by finding the strength to walk away. –Tiny Buddha

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Identify what the experience taught you to help develop a sense of closure.

Here’s my new list:

1. Write everything you want to express in a letter. Even if you choose not to send it, clarifying your feelings will help you come to terms with reality as it is now.

2. Visualize an empowered single you—the person you were before meeting your friend or loved one. That former you was pretty awesome, and now you have the chance to be him or her again.

3. Create a space that reflects your present reality. Take down old pictures; delete their emails from your saved folder.

4. Reward yourself for small acts of acceptance. Get a facial after you delete all contact numbers.

Like this:

Why hide your feelings from the one you love? Why love the one who loves another? Why give everything if only pain comes in return? Why wait if there’s nothing to wait for? I guess the answer is love. Here’s a beautiful essay from David Whyte.

UNREQUITED love is the love human beings experience most of the time. The very need to be fully requited may be to turn from the possibilities of love itself. Men and women have always had difficulty with the way a love returned hardly ever resembles a love given, but unrequited love may be the form that love mostly takes; for what affection is ever returned over time in the same measure or quality with which it is given? Every man or woman loves differently and uniquely and each of us holds different dreams and hopes and falls in love or is the object of love at a very specific threshold in a very particular life where very, very particular qualities are needed for the next few years of our existence. What other human being could ever love us as we need to be loved? And whom could we know so well and so intimately through all the twists and turns of a given life that we could show them exactly, the continuous and appropriate form of affection they need? Requited love may happen, but it is a beautiful temporary, a seasonal blessing, the aligning of stars not too often in the same quarter of the heavens; an astonishing blessing, but it is a harvest coming only once every long cycle, and a burden to the mind and the imagination when we set that dynamic as the state to which we must always return to in order to feel ourselves in a true, consistent, loving relationship. Whether our affections are caught in romantic love, trying to see our neighbors as ourselves or trying to love a great but distant God, our love rarely seems to be returned in the mode that it is given. That gift is returned in ways that to begin with, we rarely recognize. Human beings live in disappointment and a self-appointed imprisonment when they refuse to love unless they are loved the self- same way in return. It is the burden of marriage, the difficult invitation at the heart of parenting and the central difficulty in our relationship with an imagined, living God. The great discipline seems to be to give up wanting to control the manner in which we are requited, and to forgo the natural disappointment that flows from expecting an exact and measured reciprocation, from a partner, from a child, from a loving God. We seem to have been born into a world where love, except for brilliant, exceptional moments, often seems to exist from one side only, ours – and that may be the difficulty and the revelation and the gift – to see love as the ultimate letting go and through the doorway of that affection, make the most difficult sacrifice of all, giving away the very thing we want to hold forever.

On one of my visits to Puttaparthi, I had a really great experience with Swami. (I think it was during 1999). I was feeling very down and out. I was feeling very small and insignificant and unworthy of even talking to anyone. I was just keeping to myself. then I prayed to Baba to talk to me because that would make me feel better and worthy of being talked to by others also. With that thought, I went inside sai kulwant hall after having drawn 4th token (or something near to that no.) and I was sitting in the second row in darshan on the men’s side.

Then the music started and Baba came out from the Poornachandra Auditorium. He used to walk then. He shuffled forward taking letters, blessing trays. Finally he was opposite my row. He spoke to someone there. Then He suddenly turned towards our side. There was a Russian sitting in front of me. Baba said something to him. Then suddenly He was looking at me and saying something in Telugu (I think because I heard something like “neevu” which is a Telugu word). My head was spinning. I couldn’t believe Baba was talking to me !! At the same time the thought passed thru my head “could Baba be mistaking me for some other guy, some Telugu guy”?? I dismissed that thought as soon as it came because i knew that Baba knows everything. He doesnt make mistakes. Then Baba repeated what he must have said earlier, in English. He said “Where have you come from ?” I was still too stunned to reply. Baba spoke a third time. This time in Hindi. He said “Keedhar se aayaa?” meaning again “where had I come from.” I managed to say “SAI, Mumbai”. Then Baba threw up His hands in the air as if I had given the wrong answer and He said “Oh!! Bombay!”

Then He proceeded to make vibhuti right in front of me and gave some to a Telugu farmer sitting next to me. Others nearby stretched out their hands and Baba kept giving vibhuti to all. Finally I also picked up the courage to stretch my hands out for vibhuti. But Baba just turned away. When i was praying to Baba earlier in the day, I had told him that “I dont want vibhuti or anything else, Baba, please just talk to me.” By turning away Baba displayed His omniscience. He proved to me that He knew my thoughts. What a proof !! I sat there with tears flowing down my cheeks and couldn’t stop crying long after darshan. People would just look at me and I was not able to say anything. They just nodded knowingly and said “Ananda” meaning bliss !! Baba does hear and answer our prayers. He knows everything.

The Earth is like a one-room schoolhouse in which students of different grade levels are assembled together: first graders co-exist with college seniors, remedial students with the gifted.. Its courses are taught in every language and cover every subject. Students of all nationalities and all races attend this school – all of humankind does. All are on the path toward a spiritual graduation. The lessons in this school are difficult because here we have bodies so we experience illness, death, loss, pain, separation, and so many other states of suffering. Yet, the earth also has such powerful redeeming virtues, like incredible beauty, physical love, unconditional love, soul mates, pleasure for all our senses, kind and compassionate people, and the opportunity for accelerated spiritual growth. Eventually, over the course of many lifetimes, we will learn all these lessons. Our education will be complete, and we will not need to come to Earth again any more.

(Like Baba always said, we are like light-bulbs, all of a different size and shape, each alive with a different wattage. From one hundred wattage power to one thousand wattage power. This is the “current” that runs through us all, and is found in all creatures, from the macrocosm to the microcosm.)

On the astral planes, we discover the advanced dimension that exists beyond our human awareness, and we begin to look into the many mysteries. There we can see and feel the sublime manifestations of what on Earth appears to be solid and material, and we acquire an understanding of these absolute energies at their most elevated vibration. There, we explore the nuances and levels of loving-kindness; compared to Earth and its physical form, it is learning at a higher octave. Even though these lessons are the graduate-level-courses, they are still part of our soul’s curriculum. Our knowledge is always expanding.

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,“Well, I made a difference to that one!”The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. – adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley

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Perseverance against great odds and against the criticism of others is the very hallmark of value-based idealism, as is refusing to accept failure. The understanding that we hold in our hands the power to change a life, a mind, or a circumstance today – right now – is a powerful insight and motivator.

Eve

Hello, to All People Everywhere, This blog is an on-going adventure in all things with a spiritual dint - and there are my photographs too. I must confess to photographing flowers macro style because they are such a delightful subject and not at all camera shy. Both have given me a great deal of pleasure and some pain over the years.
Eve